


So What If I Do?

by Movie_Riggs



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Dream with me, F/M, I can't wait but I'm low-key scared for this season what can I say, Of a future where whatever horrors season 3 brings us don't happen, The big happy family oneshot I need right now okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-11-19 14:52:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18137192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Movie_Riggs/pseuds/Movie_Riggs
Summary: Steve Harrington reflects on the last several years (almost a decade actually, but he refuses to focus on that part) while in the hospital. Not because he's sick or dying or because someone he knows is. Actually just the opposite.





	So What If I Do?

**Author's Note:**

> I think we can all agree that we watched this show once and regardless of our age, just looked at Finn and Millie and Gaten and all the others and decided right on the spot, "Yep, I want kids."
> 
> (validate this claim in the comments section so I know it's not just me thanks)

Steve Harrington is in the hospital. 

Relax, it's not like last time (or the time before that, or the time before _that_ (he's been in the hospital a lot, okay?)). 

This time, he doesn't need a doctor to check and see if he's got a concussion, and if he does, to analyze just how bad it is. 

He's also not here because someone got spat on by some weird-ass Sarlacc mouth--yeah, that's right, he knows Star Wars references now, what of it?--or because someone went missing for a week and was found with a disturbingly long tentacle thing stuck down their mouth. None of that. 

He's here for an entirely different, and much happier, reason. 

Come to think of it, he's pretty sure this is the only time he's been in the hospital for this particular reason. 

It's because someone's having a kid. 

Nancy and Jonathan are, to be exact, though it's mostly Nancy who's doing the real "having" he supposes, while Jonathan just... Stands by? Holds her hand? Sweats nervously? Probably all three of those. 

He looks around the room. Ted and Karen are around here somewhere, but he doesn't see them. Holly, who grew up way too damn fast, is fast asleep in between Mike and El, neither of whom are asleep even though they're both pretending to be. Steve knows this because Mike's leg is bouncing up and down incessantly and El's thumb keeps running up and down his hand. How revoltingly adorable. 

Lucas and Max aren't half as bad. They actually _are_ asleep, and even though his head is on her shoulder (does that mean she's the dominant one in the relationship? Who is he kidding, Max is the dominant one in all her relationships) they don't even begin to reach the level of ugh-I-wanna-vomit-it's-so-cute that Freckles and Super-Girl always manage to achieve. Will is beside them.

As for the last of the kids, a snore reminds him that Dustin is sitting next to him, probably more asleep than anyone. Steve gives a noiseless laugh at the sight of the young man's wide open mouth. He's practically swallowing his own tongue at this point.

He glances out the window. The sunrise is still far off from what he can tell. One would think he would be falling asleep, or at least pretending to be, just like everyone else. The truth is, after everything that's happened in these last several years of his life, if he's woken up in the middle of the night, chances are he won't be able to get back to sleep again. Perks of being one of the few people in the world who can say they have defended their friends and their town from inter-dimensional monsters. Steve Harrington, helping to save Hawkins since 1983 and babysitting at the same time since 1984. 

It appears he's not the only one who is cursed with the old "I Can't Go Back to Sleep Now" disease. Through the window, he can see the chief and Joyce leaning against the Blazer, sharing a cigarette like they always do. Both their heads have gone ever grayer, but apparently they are going to suck down those cancer sticks--even if it's in the parking lot of a damn hospital--until they can suck them down no longer. 

Steve is jolted out of his thoughts by a pretty nurse, who announces to the waiting room that they can see the baby now. 

It's as if no one was asleep to begin with. Holly shoots up from her chair, making Mike and El groan in unison, and begins clapping her hands with delight. Will hurries to go tell his mom and Hopper. Max mutters a gruff but good-natured, "Get off, Stalker," and shoves Lucas off her shoulder. Dustin keeps snoring until Steve jabs him lightly in the ribs. As if she had been lurking just around the corner, Karen reappears, dragging a zombie-like Ted with her.

Nancy looks exhausted, and to Steve's entertainment, so does Jonathan. But the thing wrapped in the now-mother's arms seems to make it all worthwhile for them. Neither of them can look away from it for long. 

Steve isn't the first one to get to hold Barbara Byers. Far from it. First is Karen, the grandmother, which is only natural. Then it's Joyce, the other grandmother. Ted and Hopper both decline; the first doesn't look like he's awake enough to not drop the poor thing, and in spite of everything he's ever said, the latter doesn't seem to like dealing with kids until they're old enough to argue with him. Next it's Mike, the uncle, and Holly, the aunt. Neither of those terms seem very fitting for them. Then El gets it, and then Will, and Max is just about to start a fight with Lucas and Dustin over which of them get to see the baby next until Nancy interrupts with a yawn. 

"Let Steve see her, you guys."

So then it's Steve's turn to hold the baby. And he realizes it's his first time ever holding a baby. Ever. 

What about that doesn't feel right? Steve pretends to think about it as he stares down at this gurgling lump of flesh who isn't even an hour old. In reality, he knows right away, he just doesn't want to admit it because it requires acknowledging the fact that it's been almost ten years since he was a senior in high school. 

Because it was that year he unwittingly "adopted" four eighth graders, and two more after that once Super-Girl came back and Will became un-possessed. And technically, Steve's more of a big brother to them than like...a dad ( _God, why is even_ saying _that word so hard for him?_ he would wonder, if he didn't know the answer to that, too). But the proper term to apply is just semantics. The point is, he's been looking after a group of rowdy individuals several years younger than him for longer than he wants to admit. And sometimes he forgets that they aren't actually related to him by blood in any way, shape or form. Sometimes he gets so caught up in playing the role that he forgets he wasn't doing this when they were as small as little Barbara here. 

What's the point of all this rambling? The point is that Steve's arms never felt emptier than when he handed baby Barbara off to Max, who then gave her to Lucas who gave her to Dustin who finally gave her back to Nancy. And he was finally able to tell himself that he had a purpose in life beyond waving a spiked bat around and getting his face beat in once every year or so. He had a purpose even beyond the kids in this room--who weren't really kids anymore--because as much as he loved them, they weren't his and they were going to grow up and start their own families perhaps before he even started his own. 

But _that's_ the point. It was Barbara Byers, born 1992, who was able to remind Steve without uttering so much as a "wah" that he had every reason to want the life that Nancy and Jonathan had built for themselves. 

_King Steve wants kids_ , he huffed to himself, then added, _And so what if I do?_

**Author's Note:**

> Try telling me Nancy isn't gonna name her daughter after her best friend. Freaking try telling me that. I dare you.
> 
> I'm kind of wary to ship Steve with Robin (who is being played by Maya Hawke in Season 3) because who knows if that's what is actually going to happen. But if I knew it was, she would have appeared in this fic.


End file.
